A panel discussion on the past, present and future of intralogistics was part of the 50th anniversary celebration.

More than 400 guests celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Austrian branch of Hamburg-based STILL GmbH at its refurbished headquarters in Vienna Neudorf, last month.

Heading the Austrian branch is Helmuth Viertl, who has been with the company for over 30 years.

Founded in 1962, STILL Austria is the oldest of the 20 international branches now in service for STILL GmbH.

The Austrian branch began in Magdalenenstraße, in the centre of Vienna. In 1971, it relocated to the industrial estate in Vienna Neudorf in south Lower Austria, where it is located today.

It was only this year that the site was extensively modernised. Besides a new design for the building's façade, new departmental offices were built and a new 520 sqm (5,597 sqft.) showroom established for customers to view the STILL product range.

In 1988, the Austrian branch became the first non-Austrian company to bear the Austrian Code of Arms, which is awarded by the Federal Minister for Economics to companies that have performed extraordinarily well for the Austrian economy.

From a modest start with eight people, the staff has grown to 108 employees. There have not been any redundancies throughout the company's history, with the company claiming it emerged stronger from the 2009 financial crisis. In 2011, it registered the largest marketshare and highest turnover in its history.

"The image of quality of STILL is known to everyone in Austria," Viertl says, "During the '70s, the first free-view mast was launched on the market by STILL. The same applies for the battery change over the side for electric trucks, launched in 2005. Now it has been several years that the talk is about hybrid propulsion. Again STILL is the first company to produce hybrid trucks ..."

At the 50th anniversary gala, customers and employees were joined by the mayor of Vienna Neuford, Christian Wöhrleitner; the commerce representative in the Committee of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce, Bettina Lorentschitsch; and the managing director of the lower Austria business agency ecoplus, Helmut Miernicki.

"With the gala, we wanted to thank our customers and staff and make clear that STILL is going to stand by their side as a reliable partner and employer in the coming 50 years as well," Viertl says.